HELP...How can it be poetry?

This is truly not a hate question and no offense intended. How can people write long extended paragraphs of continuing thought resembling a short story. Then cut them down into many unstructured lines and stanzas. And then present it as a poem. I'm totally shocked and I'm expecting negative feed back. But I would really appreciate it if someone could explain how this can be. There are books that start with the basics of poetry. But other then not reading them how can this be happening.